NFL: Radio and TV okay, the web...no way

I've posted a couple of times on the restrictive policies of the NFL and the MLB regarding audio, video, still images and other content on websites.

Green Bay Packer QB Brett Favre is holding a news conference to officially announce he's hanging it up. First words out of the Packer media guy's mouth: You can broadcast on radio and TV, but no streaming from websites. Except for one: Packers.com.

Hardly a mystery. The Packers do not --as far as I know-- own radio or TV stations. But they DO have a website and and it's got lots of sponsors. Just one more example of how the web is changing --if you'll forgive me-- the playing field. Once upon a time, the teams and the leagues needed the media to reach their fans. They still need them, but maybe not as much and not for everything. As more and more fans --and advertisers-- move to the web, this will be a big issue.

Update: Lost remote reports that traffic at Packers.com was so heavy, they had to switch to a breaking-news layout.